From APHA Newsletter 100–101 March/June 1991:

In 1991 laureates, honored at the annual meeting in January, are Eleanor M. Garvey, the Philip Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts Emerita at Harvard, and the Bibliographical Society of America.

Before her retirement in 1990 Miss Garvey was respon­sible for a substantial group of publications related to the history of the illustrated book. Prior to joining the Houghton Library in 1975 she was on the staff of the Worcester Art Museum, the Wellesley College Museum, and the Newark Museum. Miss Garvey’s publications include:

• Edward Lear, Painter, Poet, and Draughtsman (Worcester Art Museum, 1968);

• Artist Books of the Kaldewey Press (Metropolitan Museum, Watson Library, 1988);

• The Artist and the Book, 1860-1960, in Western Europe and the United States (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1961; exhibition co-sponsored by the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts; reprinted in 1972);

• The Arts of the French Book, 1900-1965; Illustrated Books of the School of Paris (with Peter A. Wick. Friends of the Dallas Public Library, 1967);

• The Book Beautiful and the Binding as Art (introduction to the sale catalogue of the Carlos Scherrer collection; Boston, 1983);

• The Turn of the Century, 1885-1910; Art Nouveau­Jugendstil Books (Houghton Library, 1970).

Most recently she has co-edited and written major sec­tions of A Catalogue of an Exhibition of the Philip Hofer Bequest, 1988. Her contributions in it range variously from en­tries on Abraham Bosse the artist-printer, Arrighi, and Francis Barlow, to Florentine quattrocento wood cuts and mezzotints.

Miss Garvey’s work with Philip Hofer in the Department of Graphic Arts was one of three influences that she mentioned in her acceptance speech, soon to be published in Printing History. In ”Leaves from an Album of Printing and Graphic Arts,” she outlined the significant contributions made by William M. Ivins, Jr., A. Hyatt Mayor, and Philip Hofer. As ”curators in charge of major collections of graphic art in major institutions in major cultural centers … each was essentially aristocratic, yet with a wide view of the world and an eagerness, even a mission, to share with anyone interested in this field.” Ivins and Mayor shared the understanding that ”a print room was not just Durers, Rembrandts, and Goyas, but also a witness to man’s use of the graphic arts as a means of communication.” Hofer, at Harvard, served a different constituency in an institution whose mission is ”to teach within an academic structure and to furnish research material on many different levels.” Miss Garvey follows in their tradition, making her knowledge of the graphic arts available and understandable to us all.

Anna Lou Ashby